The capability of creating copies of digital works distributed on compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM) media, and more recently, on digital video (or versatile) disk (DVD) media, has resulted in a need to improve the efficiency and simplicity of the media copying and conversion process. Typically, users want to produce compressed copies of digital works from original recordings by converting the original format of the digital works into a desired format (typically more compressed than the original) for addition to a library of such works, i.e. to a “visible store.” As used herein, a visible store is a collection of media that is exposed directly to a user, for example, via a media player, as a database listing of playable works, or through some other exposed mechanism. The tracks of interest to a user that are included on a commercial CD-ROM or other form of media storage are copied onto a hard drive or other form of non-volatile storage. Various types of media compression schemes, such as the moving pictures expert group (MPEG) audio layer 3 specification, which produces files designated by the “.mp3” extension, and Microsoft Corporation's WINDOWS™ media audio specification, which produces files designated by the “.wma” extension, can be employed for compressing the files that were stored on the digital media that is being copied. By compressing the data produced by copying tracks with one of these compression schemes, substantially more tracks of near original quality can be stored in non-volatile memory by a user, which is particularly important if the user wants to copy the compressed works onto a portable non-volatile memory medium, such as a CD-ROM, or into the memory of a portable music playing device.
A number of different software programs are available to copy digital media. For example, Microsoft Corporation's WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER™, Musicmatch, Inc.'s MUSICMATCH JUKEBOX™, and Apple Corporation's iTUNES™ software programs include functions for copying and converting digital media content into various desired formats. The copying and conversion of digital media is not limited to music; it is becoming increasingly more common for movies and other works recorded on digital media to be copied and converted into more compressed formats.
However, the process of copying a work recorded on a commercial compact disk (CD), DVD, or other storage media can require substantial time, even with a relatively fast player. Typically, a user will play a digital media work at least once, and then will subsequently decide to rip it, which requires that the work again be “played” to copy it to the desired format, even if the work is played at a higher than normal listening rate, so that the digital content can be extracted, compressed if necessary, and then copied onto suitable digital media. Some digital media may actually require more time to process when “played” to enable producing a copy, since even at higher play rates, the processing required to put the content into a desired format may be relatively extensive and time consuming.
Improvements in both hardware and software-based techniques for copying a digital work have made the process easier and faster, but there is still a need to increase the speed of the process. Faster hardware players can increase the speed at which a digital work is read from the medium on which it was sold and distributed to the user, but there are limits to that process. Faster processing hardware can also reduce the time required to process the content that is extracted from a digital medium prior to recording the processed data for storage in another format. However, the copying process will be limited by the speed of existing hardware for most users, who may be unable to afford to purchase the very latest and fastest hardware devices for making digital copies. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a technique to increase the apparent speed of copying with a user's existing hardware player and processing devices.
In most cases, the greatest contributor to the time required for producing a copy is in reading the source digital medium to extract the content prior to converting the content to another format. Therefore, an approach is needed that apparently substantially reduces this time, without requiring that a user purchase faster playing or processing hardware.